Donkeys with soft hooves caused Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa to intervene when he learned that his department’s conservation policy prevented communities in the Baviaans Valley conservation area in the Eastern Cape from going to church.
Last Thursday Moosa flew from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and then made a four-hour drive on a treacherous road over three mountain passes after being summoned by the communities of Landsekroon and Coleski Farm in the Geelhoutbos area between Hankey and Willowmore.
Topping the agenda in two heated community meetings were donkeys with soft hooves.
Community representative Boet Windvogel explained to Moosa and officials of the Eastern Cape Department of Environmental Affairs how life in the newly proclaimed conservation area had become unbearable over the past two years.
According to Windvogel — whose family claims direct descendance from Saartjie Baartman and has lived in the valley since the 19th century — conservation policy dictates that their donkeys are not allowed to roam the veld because it is feared that they will mate with zebras. Conservation officials confirmed that donkeys and zebras do mate in the wild if there is no control.
The donkeys are now kept in small camps close to the homesteads. Owners are threatened with heavy fines if the donkeys are found in the veld.
But, says Windvogel, when donkeys are kept in camps their hooves soften within three weeks. The result is that the donkeys cannot pull their carts on the gravel roads to church three times a week. Neither can they travel to Willowmore to collect welfare grants.
He said the policy was ”designed by the state to drive his people from the Baviaanskloof” and that they were not even allowed to plant lucerne or vegetables.
Leentjie Grootboom, one of the oldest women in the community, said the arrival of conservation officers in the area has brought hardship. They have told her that her daughter, who lost her job in Port Elizabeth, will not be allowed to return home. She said some of their children who work for Nature Conservation are being threatened with pay cuts if family donkeys are seen in the veld.
A clearly upset Moosa told the Afrikaans-speaking community, through interpreter Peter Marais, that he did not fight for freedom to see people being oppressed by conservation policy. The policy was designed to accommodate sustainable use by communities within conservation areas. It was unacceptable that the people of Landsekroon and Coleski Farm could not go to church.
Moosa ordered the immediate release of the donkeys on condition that they are supervised and not allowed to mingle with zebras.
He instructed the Eastern Cape director of Nature Conservation, Albert Mfenyana, to draft a poverty relief programme before the end of October for the government to channel funds to the provincial government. He ordered that the money be used to build camps for the donkeys, to harvest lucerne and to build camps for harvesting vegetables. Also, the church and homes must be restored, as some of the buildings were more than 100 years old.
Moosa said allegations that family members were not allowed to return home should be investigated because threats of this nature were unconstitutional.
He said the Baviaans Valley is unique in its flora because it is where Cape fynbos merges with the rich-ness of Eastern Cape plant life. He envisaged thousands of visitors to the area. This will not only create jobs but will confront his government with the responsibility of making sure the communities in the conservation area live with pride and dignity.
The community decided to select a committee to advise the Eastern Cape Department of Environmental Affairs on policy.